


Sandcastles

by Immaryrawr12



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-05-23 12:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immaryrawr12/pseuds/Immaryrawr12
Summary: Beach au where Barry makes a sandcastle and Iris comes to help.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to backtothestart02 for beta'ing this chapter for me <3

Barry Allen was a pro when it came to building sandcastles, or at least, he thought he was. He didn’t know what possessed him to challenge the little blonde haired, blue-eyed kid next to him to a sandcastle contest. He really didn’t think it through. He was good at it as a kid. When his mom and dad would take him to the beach, they would spend hours building sandcastles with him. Obviously, he was out of practice. He was really struggling. While his castle was constantly falling, sand spilling everywhere, the little boy next to him was building a second level to his. Barry inwardly groaned. He was ready to give up, the little boy next to him smirking. He sighed in frustration, wiping the sweat from his brow when he heard a soft voice from above him.

“You need some help?” He looked up in the direction of the voice and almost fell over at the sight of the beautiful girl above him.

“Um…” Barry could hardly think straight. She was gorgeous, her dark skin all but glowing in the sun.

“Not to brag or anything, but I’m a pro castle builder.” She smiled.

Barry shook his head, about to decline her offer when the little boy spoke up.

“She can’t help you! That’s cheating!”

“Hey, we never said we couldn’t have help,” Barry shot at him and looked back up at the girl. “I would love some help.”

She smiled at him and knelt next to him in the sand.

“I’m Iris,” she said, flashing a pearly white smile that made Barry go weak in the knees.

“Barry.” He smiled back. 

The kid next to them huffed and went back to building his castle. Iris smirked at Barry.

“No offense, but you’re not very good at this,” Iris said.

“Yeah,” Barry laughed nervously. “I may have been a little over my head.”

Iris eyed him as he packed sand in the castle shaped container and smiled.

“Well, for starters, you need some water.” Iris smiled, reaching over to grab the container from his hands. 

Her hand barely touched his, but Barry swore he felt literal sparks. He silently berated himself for not offering to go get the water himself as she walked away. The kid beside him was pouting, muttering to himself how he needed help too. Barry almost felt bad for the kid, but it didn’t last long because Iris was back before he knew it, water dripping off of her burnt orange swimsuit. Barry shifted his gaze when she sat back down next to him. He was going to scare her away if he kept gawking at her, but he couldn’t help it. Everything in him was screaming to touch her.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before Iris had built the most amazing sandcastle Barry had ever seen. He was supposed to be watching, trying to learn how to build good sand castles, but all he could focus on was how the sun shone on her golden brown skin, and how her hair seemed to fall effortlessly on her shoulder. The way her eyes lit up when she laughed at his jokes, and God, how her laugh rattled something inside of him that he never knew existed.  
He was so embarrassingly distracted by her that he didn’t even notice her staring at him.

“Barry?” she said, smiling sweetly.

“Yeah?”

“I called your name like three times.” She laughed knowingly.

“Sorry.” Barry ducked his head, his ears red.

“You’re very cute. Did you know that?” Iris teased, and Barry smiled at her. “What I was asking was, what do you think?” 

“Huh?”

“About the sandcastle? Should I add something on top or is it perfect just as is?” she asked.

He cleared his throat. The castle was perfect, not that he particularly cared about the castle anymore. The little kid that had challenged him in the first place was long gone, his mom having come to drag him away. Barry compared the kid’s castle to his and Iris’. Theirs was better, in his eyes, complete with an extra tower and a moat surrounding it.  
He was just about to tell Iris that it was perfect and that she was perfect when something caught his eye, and he remembered what his mom would tell him when she built sandcastles with him. He went over to the kid’s castle and grabbed the little red flag from the top.

“No castle is complete without its little red flag,” Barry smiled, repeating his mother’s words and placing the stolen red flag on top of his and Iris’ castle.

“Perfect.” Iris smiled at him again.

Barry knew that it was now or never. He had to ask her out. 

“T-thanks for helping,” he said.

“No problem. Though our little friend isn’t going to be too happy that you stole his flag.”

“Well, he left his castle unattended.” Barry shrugged. “Hey, I was-”

He was interrupted by the sound of someone calling Iris’ name. 

“Over here!” she replied to a girl around their age.

She was a pretty girl, wearing a black and brown swimsuit, her hair tied in a ponytail.

“We’re about to head over to that burger shack. You ready?” the girl asked, and Barry felt defeated as Iris stood up. 

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Iris said glancing down at Barry. “You coming, Barry?”

His head shot up, surprised. “Uh. yeah, sure,” he stammered, standing up and wiping the sand off his shorts.

“Barry, this is Linda. Linda, this is Barry,” Iris introduced them, and Barry smiled and waved awkwardly.

The girls turned to make their way to the burger shack, Barry not too far behind them. He was trying to work up the courage to actually talk to Iris when he heard it.

“He’s cute.” Linda smirked, failing miserably to inconspicuously gesture to Barry.

“Shut up,” Iris laughed, playfully pushing her. “Isn’t he, though?” 

Barry couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. All he could think about was how happy he was that sandcastles existed.


	2. Ch.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to backtothestart02 for beta'ing this chapter <3

The happiness didn’t last very long, because when they got to the booth Iris and Linda’s friends were holding, there were two guys sitting at the booth. One was younger looking and had an uncanny resemblance to Iris. The other was older with a bolder face structure and eyes that made Barry uneasy. They seemed to be in a passionate debate when Barry, Iris, and Linda reached the table. 

“What are you nerds going on about now?” Linda asked, gesturing for one of the guys to scoot over. 

The younger one was about to speak, the obvious passion about to spew from his lips, when Iris held up her hands.

“Actually, we really don’t want to know,” she teased. “Guys, this is Barry. Barry, this is my brother, Wally, and my friend, Eddie,” she said, and Barry’s heart basically jumped out of his chest at the word, “friend.”

Barry waved awkwardly before taking a seat in the booth. He couldn’t lie, he was nervous. It was hard enough wanting to impress Iris without the scruffy, attractive “friend” staring at him knowingly. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when Iris sat next to Eddie. Wally scooted over, and Linda sat next him. Barry, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate next to Iris, sat across from her next to Linda. The waiter came right after they sat to take their drink orders, and Barry spent the next few minutes studying the menu, trying to be casual. He was so awkward, he was annoying himself. He was pulled out of his self-berating by Eddie’s loud voice.

“So, how did you guys meet?” Barry looked up and saw that Eddie was staring right at him.

He cleared his throat and shot Iris a look, nervousness immediately taking over him. Iris was calm, though, as she looked at Eddie and smiled.

“I met him down at the beach,” Iris said. “We kicked this kid’s butt in a sandcastle competition.”

“Sandcastles, really?” Wally asked, and Eddie stifled a laugh. Barry couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t a little embarrassed, his cheeks heating up. It was a bit lame. He could hear the laughter from his co-workers already when he would tell them that he met a girl at the beach because she saw that he needed help building a sandcastle. 

“Yeah, it was a lot of fun,” Iris said nonchalantly, pulling Barry out of his self-berating once again. He couldn’t help but smile, relieved that Iris didn’t seem to think he was lame. She smiled back, giving him a little wink and his cheeks heated up again. 

He tried not to meet Eddie’s eyes as he and Iris smiled at each other, but Barry didn’t miss the way Eddie quietly retreated into himself. He also didn’t miss the way Linda and Wally were looking between the two of them, giddy smiles on their faces. 

Iris didn’t miss it either, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She tried not to be so obvious, but she knew that Linda would never let her live it down. There was something about this tall, awkward cutie sitting across from her that made everything in her yearn for him. 

She could tell he was nervous. He had seemed at ease on the walk from the beach to the restaurant, but he immediately tensed back up when Iris had introduced him to the guys. He seemed okay with Wally—Iris mentioning that he was her brother probably helped. With Eddie though, Barry seemed to stutter every time Eddie spoke to him. She couldn’t blame him, Eddie was doing his “protective big brother” thing, and as much as Iris hated it, at least he wasn’t doing his “protective ex-boyfriend thing.” 

It could be worse, she thought, but it didn’t mean that Eddie asking Barry questions about his personal life didn’t make her want to scream. She was thankful when the waiter came back with their beverages and to take their orders. It gave everybody something to do, and she could glance up at Barry unnoticed. 

He was cute, handsome, very attractive. She didn’t know what made her go help him down at the beach, but she was glad she did. There was something about how he adorably struggled with building the sandcastle that caught her attention. Well, actually, it was Linda pointing out the dorky guy their age playing around in the sand that caught her attention. They were walking down by the shore gossiping about some guy that had a crush on Linda when she elbowed her.

“What?” Iris asked as Linda pointed over towards Barry. It was hard to miss him due to the kid next to him building one of the tallest sandcastles Iris had ever seen. Barry’s looked so pitiful next to his. 

“Look at that guy. What is he doing?” Linda whispered.

Iris shrugged her shoulders. “Building a sandcastle, maybe?” 

“I don’t know, but he looks like he’s struggling,” Linda said, obviously done with the conversation, ready to move on to something else.

“Maybe I should go help?” she said, stalling when she noticed the way Linda was looking at her. “What?”

“Nothing.” Linda smiled knowingly. “Go for it, I’m going to go find the guys.”

Iris smiled, told her okay, and made her way to the guy that had instantly caught her attention. She wasn’t usually this forward. She usually waited for guys to come to her, but she couldn’t help herself. And she was glad for it, because the minute she spoke to the brown-haired, green-eyed boy next to her, she felt something change. 

She liked Barry, a lot. He was sweet, charming, smart, and funny. Gosh, he was so funny. She felt kind of silly laughing at him so much at the beach, but when she saw how he smiled back at her, she knew he liked it. She didn’t know what this was; she couldn’t explain it, but there was something about building sandcastles with Barry that took her back to her childhood. Laughing and talking with him felt so easy, so familiar, so natural, and she didn’t want to stop. 

She was getting a little sad when they were finishing the castle, wracking her brain trying to find something else for them to do. So, she was both delighted and relieved when Linda called her offering a trip to the burger shack just a short walk away.

She didn’t even think twice about inviting Barry, telling herself to be cool when he agreed to come with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few people wanted me to continue this sweet fic, so here's ch. 2 :) Thanks for reading!


	3. Ch.3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the lovely backtothestart02 for beta'ing this chapter for me :) I hope you all enjoyed my first multi-chap fic <3

Ch.3  
Barry felt like he was doing good. They were halfway through their meal. Eddie had calmed down with the questions—well, the interrogation, really—and Barry had finally relaxed, laughing and joking with Iris and her friends. Turns out, Eddie was training for the police academy and Wally was studying mechanical engineering in college. They seemed happy to learn that Barry was a science-nerd, majoring in forensic science. He had told them that he wanted to be a CSI, which made Eddie and Wally both perk up. Eddie immediately started asking Barry questions again, this time about police and detective work, with Wally adding in his two cents every once in a while about the science behind it all. 

He also learned that Iris and Linda were both pursuing degrees in journalism. He liked that. He could totally see Iris becoming a great journalist. She was fearless, determined, smart, headstrong, and extremely charming. He told her that and it earned him a sweet blush and a “thank you” from her. 

Things were going great, but Barry knew it couldn’t last forever. He eventually would have to go home… they eventually would have to go their separate ways. After the meal, Eddie suggested the group head to a party down at the beach somewhere, and Barry could already feel himself panicking. He didn’t do well at parties, there’s no way he could go. He told them that when they offered, and they said they understood as he turned around to leave. 

Iris was disappointed. She wanted to spend more time with him, but she didn’t want to push him into doing something he didn’t want to do. She watched sadly as Barry awkwardly said goodbye and walked out of the restaurant’s door. She realized her friends had gotten quiet, and she looked over at them cautiously.

“What?” she asked.

“Are you really going to leave it there?” Linda asked.

“What are you talking about?” Iris said defensively.

“You didn’t even get his number!” Linda exclaimed.

“Wh-“ Iris started, but was cut off by Wally.

“You don’t even want to go to this party,” Wally said.

“Yeah, but you guys are all going. I can’t just split apart from the group,” Iris said.

“How else are you going to spend some time alone with Barry?” Linda asked.

Iris was speechless. She wanted to spend time with Barry, but she didn’t expect her friends to be so adamant about it. 

The only one who wasn’t saying anything was Eddie. She looked up at him, and he sighed.

“You should go,” he said sweetly. “He likes you.” 

Barry was almost out of the restaurant when Iris called out to him. He turned around, confused at first and then relieved to see her running out of the restaurant. 

“Hey,” he said, trying to sound casual, but sure that it came out like a question. 

“The rest of the guys are heading to that party down at the pier,” Iris said, and Barry couldn’t help but smile at her. 

“And… I’m not really in a party mood right now…”

Ask her to hang out. 

“I don’t know, I guess I was just wondering what you were up to for the rest of the night,” Iris suggested. 

Do it.

“Um,” he stammered, shaking his head to clear his mind. “I’m not.. I don’t have any plans.”

Iris raised her eyebrows, silently hoping that he would take the hint. 

“I was going to walk by our sandcastle, see if the tide’s washed it away,” he said, berating himself for not thinking of something cooler.

“If the waves haven’t ruined it, then our little blonde hair, blue-eyed friend probably did when he saw that you stole his flag.” Iris smirked, and Barry let out a little laugh. 

“Let’s go check it out?” he offered, and Iris nodded at him. 

They walked back towards the beach, not quite touching but close enough. Barry wasn’t quite sure what to talk to her about, so he talked about his parents. Due to Eddie’s constant badgering, they were on his mind. Iris didn’t seem to mind, glancing up at him sweetly as he talked about how they met in college, fell in love almost instantly, and have been grossly in love since. And how he could only hope to have half of what they had in his lifetime. 

Iris thought he was sweet. She loved listening to him talk. He had a sleepy sound to his voice, but he talked a mile a minute, moving his hands animatedly as he talked. She could listen to him all night long, and she was sure he could talk all night long, stopping only to answer her questions. 

“Your parents sound like sweet people,” she said.

“They are,” Barry said proudly.

The conversation lulled as they approached their sandcastle. It was still there, standing in all of its glory. Iris was excited to see it. She had wanted to take a picture but was distracted earlier. But, she could now. 

“My dad would be so proud!” she exclaimed, and Barry laughed. 

She beamed up at him and Barry could feel his heart thumping against his chest. “We used to build sandcastles together all of the time when I was a little girl.”

“You’re really good at it,” Barry said, and Iris smiled. 

“Yeah?” she asked, gazing up at him. 

“Yeah.” He nodded. 

Barry didn’t know what else to say. He could barely think with the way she was staring up at him, so sweetly. 

They ended up spending the next hour sitting on the beach next to their sandcastle. It was nearing the end of the day, the sun close to setting on the horizon. This time it was Iris’s turn to talk about her family. She talked about her dad and her brother, only mentioning her mom a couple of times. She talked a lot about Linda and how they couldn’t be closer. Eddie was mentioned a bit. Barry learned that the two of them dated for a while, but later decided it wasn’t going to work out, which Barry couldn’t lie, he was happy to hear. 

“You know, I hadn’t had that much fun building sandcastles in a long time,” Iris said after a while. 

“Me neither. I’m glad you came to help me.”

“Me too. I don’t usually do that. You know, walk up to random guys on the beach.”

“Really?” Barry was surprised. “So why did you?” 

Iris shrugged. “I don’t know. You seemed like you needed some help, and I thought you were cute.”

“Oh?” Barry raised his eyebrow. “You thought I was cute?”

Iris blushed, and Barry wanted to take a mental picture. 

“I do think you’re cute,” she smiled, sounding braver than she felt.

“I think you’re cute, too,” Barry smiled. “Actually, you’re really pretty.” 

“Thank you,” she said bashfully. 

Barry didn’t want to go too fast, but he wanted something to happen. The day was about to end, and he needed to see her again. 

“The sunset is beautiful,” Iris said softly. 

Barry reached over slowly to hold her hand and let out a breath of relief when she intertwined her fingers with his. He looked over to see her staring at him. 

“Barry… I don’t-“ she was saying at the same time that he said her name. She let out a sigh and gestured towards him.

“You go first,” she said.

Barry coughed. “Um, I was.. um..” He took a deep breath. “I really like you, Iris. I would love to see you again.”

Iris smiled, her heart beating frantically in her chest. “I would love to see you again, too.” 

Barry smiled, probably bigger than he had ever smiled in his life. He didn’t know what was going happen next, but he couldn’t help but feel giddy as he sat next to Iris.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how I like this ending, but thank you so much for reading :)


End file.
